1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to devices capable of dispensing solid materials, specifically a device capable of enclosing one or more uniformly arrayed objects, temporarily adhered to or resting upon a cartridge belt, and subsequently separated from the cartridge belt, and presented through an exit opening, one measure or quantity of solid matter, at a time, through the use of a manual advancement arm.
2. Description of Prior An
Hardware manufacturers, battery manufacturers, confectioners, and pharmaceutical companies, and others, commonly package parts, batteries, confections, cord, tubing, screws, wire, tablets or capsules, and other items. Various packages are designed to contain a continuous product or a number of identical items, and to ease the removal (or dispensing) of a single (or measured) quantity, at a time. Such packaging may also address issues of tamper-proofing, protecting, and preserving or inactivating the contents.
Wire solder, for example, is commonly supplied, coiled on a spool or wound in a coil-shape. The user must pull and unroll a length of the solder for use. Frequent difficulties with the present art are having to constantly and awkwardly unroll more wire solder; as soldering continues, resulting in disruption of the soldering process Between the times of unrolling the wire solder, there is often either too much or too little wire solder available to the uses Support is lacking to hold the wire solder steady for the user.
Many other delicate or elastic continuous confections or materials require protection from distention or distortion. Therefore, the current art often distributes a product, affixed to a backing material. The art currently does not provide an adequate means for detaching and handling the often small and delicate products.
It is often difficult to open the packaging and remove or dispense a specific quantity of the objects, such as tablets and capsules, and many other uniformly-shaped objects. Vitamin tablets are often either packaged in a bubble-pack, which requires peeling back or punching the tablet through a foil, paper, cardboard, or plastic membrane, in order to obtain the tablet. Alternatively, these tablets may be distributed in jars, which require unscrewing a lid and shaking or pouring out the tablets, frequently dispensing more than the desired quantity. Both methods require several tasks which require two hands, may be difficult or cumbersome, and may be time-consuming. Both methods often result in tablets being dropped out of the user's hand, or other intended receptacle.
In the example of air-activated hearing-aid batteries, a particularly interesting, sophisticated, demanding, and challenging application, a number of methodologies have been applied to previous packaging efforts, in order to protect batteries from tampering and theft, prevent deterioration of the battery through premature energy loss, and allow the user to remove only one battery at a time, instead of having to handle or manage additional, unneeded batteries. Premature energy loss results when the inner cell is exposed to the atmosphere through built-in air holes in the flat bottom surface, prior to installation in the hearing aid, when the air exchange is needed for optimal battery performance. Such loss is prevented by sealing the air-holes with pieces of specially-formulated, partially air-permeable sealant tape, called `tabs`.
These batteries range in diameter from approximately 5 cm to 8 cm, or more, and in height from approximately 2 cm to 6 cm, or more. Handling of such batteries includes picking them up, pulling them loose from the sealant tabs or tape, viewing and orienting them, and positioning and placing them in or out of a battery holder. These processes are difficult for most humans, particularly for the (largely geriatric or handicapped) target population of hearing aid wearers.
Past approaches to packaging hearing aid batteries to transport, seal, and dispense such batteries, have included enclosing a row of three or four batteries, placed upon, and retained by, a strip of specially-formulated partially air-permeable sealant tape, permanently affixed to the inside base of a hinged plastic box.
This design suffered from the need for expensive fabrication processes, limited capacity (only three or four batteries fit within the case), lack of protection against tampering or fraudulent replacement of new batteries with spent batteries (through realignment of battery tabs to be used for batteries and placing these batteries in the case), and a lack of space for informational and advertising materials on the package. Most significantly, though, was the need for the user to use his or her fingers to pull out or pry out a battery, hold the small battery, and then place the battery properly oriented) into a hearing aid battery door/battery holder, from either the side or the top, depending on the design of the battery door.
A subsequent offering retained the hinged box (U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,091), but displaced the strip of sealant tape with batteries having individual sealant tabs on their flat surface. The batteries (tab side up) were retained by pliable plastic vertical walls (on two opposite sides of each battery), integral to the base of the plastic box. Gould Corporation, one of the earliest manufacturers of such batteries, employed this packaging with its ACTIVAIR and ACTIVAIR II lines of zinc-air batteries. This design suffered from the same difficulties in use of Gould's previous design, except that the user was now required to also pull off the `tab` from the flat side of the battery, gripping the `handle` of the tab, which extended barely 0.5 cm beyond the edge of the battery, on one side, and dispose of the tab, before proceeding with battery insertion.
Presumably, the earlier Gould design suffered from awkwardness in separating the battery from the strip, and possibly, from a failure of the adhesive strip (while it was mounted in the case) to allow the battery to properly exchange air. The newer, current adhesive tab material has been designed (and accepted industry-wide) to maintain the necessary air-permeability. In addition, the original strip adhesive was known to degenerate with time, becoming messy, sticking (in part) to the battery, and potentially subsequently interfering with proper battery performance and functioning within the hearing aid.
As the popularity of zinc-air batteries increased, and additional manufacturers entered the market, most manufacturers standardized on the design of the tabs used to seal the batteries. The prevalent shape is now a refinement of the tabs, originally used in the latter Gould offering.
Some battery vendors, such as Starkey Laboratories, offer packages of a single battery contained loosely within a round plastic `bubble` (raised cylindrical area), attached to a piece of cardboard. These are most commonly provided, along with a hearing aid, when the aid is returned from being repaired or serviced. The customer removes the battery by prying open flaps (perforated strips cut into the cardboard back) and shaking out the battery. This packaging does provide a means of identifying and reducing tampering and fraud (by making it necessary for the user to open the cardboard backing, in order to access the battery), and does provide a surface (on the cardboard) for labeling and advertising--However, it does nothing to help a user handle, orient, or insert the battery into his or her aid.
A variation, employed in later ACTIVAIR, ACTIVAIR 2, and ACTIVAIR II batteries (from Duracell), was to package three batteries, arranged in a triangle, on the cardboard backing, spaced 5 mm or more from each other, and covered by a single plastic bubble (comprised of three small battery-sized cylinders, retaining the three batteries) and contoured, reduced-area, plastic, connecting the three pod-like bubble regions.
Although this packaging addressed concerns of tampering and fraud, as in the single-battery bubble package, again it remained necessary for the user to tear open each of the three perforated flaps in the cardboard backing, in order to remove batteries. The user was still required to handle the battery, remove the sealant tab, and manually orient and insert the fresh battery into the hearing aid battery door holder.
The next packaging style, the `dial-pak`, which has been adopted, with slight variations, by most current manufacturers of zinc-air hearing aids, including Duracell, Ray-O-Vac, Eveready, and others, was originally employed for mercury batteries. Mercury batteries predominated in the hearing aid battery market, prior to zinc-air batteries rise in acceptance and use, due to environmental, efficiency, and performance factors. Mercury battery packages had evolved into a single unit, of overall cylindrical shape, containing a central hub. The small hub is attached through a hole in the cardboard backing of the packaging, allowing the plastic disk (the "dial"), having raised cylindrical bubbles over each of the batteries, to be rotated. A perforated cardboard flap is again employed on the back of the package, to allow the user access, from the rear, to the first battery. Access to subsequent batteries is obtained by rotating the plastic dial until a battery is aligned with the cardboard flap on the backing, and then folding back the flap, so that the battery can be dropped out of the packaging.
A variation, using additional (and harder) plastic, has been used by Duracell. Here, the rotating bubble dial becomes a true cylinder, flat on its entire top face or surface, with internal curved plastic walls employed (cast or fabricated onto the flat face), to hold each battery in position within the cylinder. Operation, however, is identical, although batteries are packaged tab-side-up, as opposed to tab-side-down on the other dial-paks.
Union Carbide (U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,767) developed a different dial variation. In their design, the battery was removed through an exit hole in the outside of the cylinder (instead of through a hole or perforation in the cardboard back of the packaging), when one rotated the dial so that it was above one of the batteries. The battery was allowed to fall out through the outer shell, with the sealant tab still attached, as in previous dial designs.
Shelby Paper Box Company (U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,700) also developed a standard cylindrical dial package, with the sole additions of a battery tester integrated into the packaging and provisions for inserting test probes through holes provided in the packaging, top and bottom.
Eveready (U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,546) patented an alternative to the dial and bubble packaging, with a package having a straight or curved channel to hold batteries (with tabs attached), containing both entrance and exit holes, having one-direction barriers. Thus, the user would insert a spent battery in the entrance hole and simultaneously push out a fresh battery from the exit hole. The unit was proposed to handle a relatively small number of batteries (6) and was designed to be placed in an accompanying, custom shell or case, to seal and protect it and the batteries. This design suffered from the additional requirement of the user having a spent battery, to insert into the one opening, in order to obtain a fresh one.
Another manufacturer, Varta (U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,455), patented a variant of the older bubble packaging, by placing all of the batteries on a single, centrally-anchored piece of sealant film or tab. As a user pushed the battery through perforations in the cardboard backing, the user would also peel the battery loose from the tabbing material. Therefore, tab removal would presumably be easier than with the standard battery tabs, and the tab material would not require separate disposal.
In spite of these minor changes, the central problems of handling (tab removal, dropping, fumbling with, losing, and struggling to pick up) the tiny hearing aid batteries remain. In addition, all previously described designs require the user to properly orient the battery, while keeping the hearing aid battery door open, and then insert the battery from the side or top into the battery door holder on the battery door.
One battery manufacturer, Renata (U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,616), has produced alternative packaging, consisting of a bubble-pack, containing a number of batteries (typically four, six, or eight), fastened to a cardboard backing. The required sealant tab(s) are affixed to the cardboard backing. With this packaging, the user peels down a perforated cardboard flap, under the appropriate battery, and then pulls off the battery from the tab. The batteries are arranged in a row, above corresponding flaps under plastic bubble packaging.
This design does provide some protection against tampering and theft, and does allow the user to perform the operation of separating the battery from the sealant tab, at the same time as removing the battery from the packaging. Unfortunately, separating the battery from the sealant tab on the cardboard is still a difficult task for many users. The disadvantages persist of requiring the user to handle the battery, and orient and insert the battery properly into the battery door.
Beltone (U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,890) patented a somewhat similar packaging idea, resembling a matchbook. Opening the cover, revealed a row of separate cardboard strips, with batteries affixed to tabs, which were secured to the strips. The user would tear off one of the strips, at a perforation, and use the cardboard to hold the battery, instead of holding the battery by the tab. One would still have to remove the tab, either before or after placing the battery into a battery door. Protection of the packaging and its contents was limited, and of course, the user had more than simply a tab to dispose of, following insertion, as the tab also had the piece of cardboard attached.
A recent Duracell patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,583) proposes a return to the sort of hinged case with batteries retained in a base, that Gould originally offered. Duracell, however, attempts to address the problem of battery tabs, by putting a single tab over all of the batteries in the case, anchoring the tab material to the center of the base, and requiring the user to remove a battery by lifting on the edge of the tab material (thereby also lifting a battery up and out of its pocket in the base) and then to peel the battery loose from the tab. Duracell also noted a potential advantage of this design, by allowing machine-automated placement of batteries into the pockets in the base, instead of a traditional, labor-intensive manual process of packaging batteries. Again, although this does reduce the nuisance of disposing of tabs, it does nothing to aid in the actual removal of tabs, nor the handling of the battery by the user.
Another pair of patents assigned to Bausch and Lomb (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,117,977, and 5,199,565) are related to each other and describe specialized devices, having enclosed chambers containing fresh batteries, into which the opened battery doors of hearing aids are inserted. These devices attempt to reduce the requirement of a user to handle hearing aid batteries and properly orient them for insertion into the battery door holder of a hearing aid. A separate chamber is required for each and every new battery, and must be additionally fabricated to work for either a left-ear hearing aid or a right-ear hearing aid. The user must present the hearing aid, with spent battery in the door holder, to a specialized corresponding (left- or right-ear) removal chamber, and then either twist the aid or push a plunger mechanism, in order to expel a used battery into a chamber, contained within the dispenser.
Then, the user removes the aid and moves it to a separate specialized (left- or right-ear specific) dispensing chamber (or reveals a separate dispensing chamber), that has a fresh battery in it. Another operation is required to place a fresh battery into the door holder, after which the user removes the aid, without letting the new battery fall out of the door, and closes the battery door on the aid. For air-activated batteries, these designs propose to use a piece of plastic to completely seal the bottom of the battery, as it is held in one of the chambers, awaiting dispensing, or to completely seal fresh battery chambers or reservoirs with a plastic seal. Once a dispenser has had all of the batteries removed, the user is expected to return the entire unit to the manufacturer for servicing or refurbishing, which would include removal of the spent batteries from a chamber, possibly replacing or repairing parts and the tape sealant plastic, and installing new batteries into each of the dispensing chambers of the unit. While awaiting servicing and return of a dispenser, the user would need to purchase one (or two, if they were made left- and right-ear specific, instead of in a combination) additional dispenser. Also, the user might need to have two units, anyway, if the user has consumed the batteries in the chambers for one aid more rapidly than for the other.
These designs are complex, relatively bulky, cumbersome, and expensive to fabricate, assemble, and manufacture. In addition, they require the user to complete many steps, in proper sequence. They presume sales of left-, or right-ear-only packaging or combined-ear packaging, which would assume consumption of batteries at a comparable rate for both aids. They assume that consumers and manufacturers (and distributors, who currently often play an important role in battery sales and installation) would find it worthwhile to reuse and recycle the dispensers. They assume that zinc-air batteries would maintain their shelf or storage life, while secured by a plastic flap, instead of the industry's common practice of using tabs. And they assume that hearing aid manufacturers would agree on some common styles and dimensions for hearing aid battery doors, such that aids from most manufacturers would work properly with these devices, is without confusion or possible jamming, or damaging the device or the user's hearing aid.
Finally, prior art includes battery insertion tools, which have sometimes been supplied with hearing aids by various hearing aid manufacturers. These tools have consisted of a straight plastic staff or rod, containing an inserted or embedded cylindrical magnet on one end, and/or an integral brush (with which to dust and clean the hearing aid). Once the user has removed a battery and removed the sealant tab, these devices, while not addressing any packaging issues, are helpful for handling the battery (picking up loose batteries, and extracting some batteries from battery doors). However, batteries tend to freely shift, spin, or rotate on the magnet tip, adding to user difficulties in insetting batteries.
Although several divergent approaches, as presented above, have been taken to overcome the problems inherent in the storage, packaging, and dispensing of small objects such as zinc-air batteries, they all suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages:
a) They require the user to perform numerous sequential steps, in order to place the object in the target device or intended location. PA1 b) They require the user to visually identify and select an available battery for use. PA1 c) They require the user to flip over the dispenser, losing assistance of visual contact, necessary for accurate control of the object. PA1 d) They require the user to pry open an often degradable cardboard flap to release a battery. PA1 e) They require the user to either catch or pick up from a flat surface the battery from the package or dispenser. PA1 f) They require the user to remove the tiny battery sealant tab from the battery (in the case of zinc-air batteries), requiring use of two thumbs and two fingers, or pliers, tweezers, etc. PA1 g) They require the user to dispose of the tiny battery sealant tab from the battery (in the case of zinc-air batteries). PA1 h) They require the user to properly orient the often tiny batteries, while their own fingers obscure their vision. PA1 i) They require the user to place the tiny batteries within the target device without being able to see the battery well, because of their fingers. PA1 j) They do not facilitate one-handed, ergonomic operation, from all azimuths. (), PA1 k) They are not conveniently dimensioned for carrying in a slacks or shirt pocket. PA1 l) They use expensive fabrication processes (especially the designs like Bausch and Lomb's complicated removal and insertion machines). PA1 m) They require size-specific packaging components for each size battery or object. PA1 n) They make it difficult for the manufacturer to scale the packaging to accommodate larger quantities, without drastically revising the packaging and components. PA1 o) They limit retail display options to hanging the dispensers by the attached cardboard backing. PA1 p) They use expensive manual processes for some steps of the packaging affixing tabs or inserting batteries into the packaging). PA1 q) They offer the manufacturer or distributor little or no protection against accidental or fraudulent user reinsertion of used or spent batteries into the packaging (causing false complaints of product failure). PA1 r) They make no affordable or plausible provision for reusing or reloading the dispensing package and thereby fail to offer a non-disposable (refillable) option to the manufacturer and consumer. PA1 s) They require the user to separate, pull, unroll, or manually peel away backing material, in order to dispense many products (as in wire solder, confections, screws, and antacids). PA1 t) They make no provision for uniform and measured amounts of product to be easily dispensed by the user (as in wire solder, confections, and shrink-tubing). PA1 u) They make no provision to quickly and easily dispense a controlled quantity of objects (as in tablets and capsules).